Guitar Lesson 31/10/2016

In today's lesson we recapped on what we did before half term. We reminded each other of the warm ups we did and practised them for a little while. I am finding the mechanical exercise easier since I practised it over half term. We also learned another chromatic scale which involved moving back a fret as you go up the strings. I liked this one as I felt it was a good challenge, especially trying to go back down the strings. It sounds a lot nicer to play than the other exercises too!

We discussed our equipment for the second part of the lesson, including what equipment we'd like to have in the future. One of he important things when buying a guitar is the type of wood it is made from so we thought about what woods our guitars were made of. My Ibanez is a solid mahogany body with a maple neck and rosewood fretboard. It is painted and lacquered heavily so I think that affects the tone. In the future I would like a Fender Strat with an alder and an in-lacquered maple neck. For me this is the classic strat, and strats are so versatile that they are a must in any guitarist's collection. It would have 3 single coil pickups so that I can play a wide range of genres with the right tones. My other guitars both have humbuckers so I think I need some single coils in my collection. It would also have a whammy bar which I haven't had before so that would be fun to experiment with.

For acoustic guitars I would love a Faith because they use very exotic woods. The particular model I would like has a very light lacquer which I feel doesn't restrict the sound. The company also hand finish a lot of their components which is important to me - if I'm paying a lot of money for a guitar I want it to have character, rather than it being spit out a machine.

We thought about amps too. I currently have a Roland Cube but I would definitely love a Marshall in the future! Valve is a much more natural sound, sometimes the digital stuff can be overwhelming on a guitar in my opinion.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Term 3 - Lesson 4

Today's lesson was about combining chords and scales in one song. We looked at Bold As Love by Jimi Hendrix because it incorporated simple barre chords and pentatonic scales that we all knew. A new technique we learned was using our thumbs to hold notes on the bottom E string. It was difficult as I'm not used to it but I have seem this technique in songs before so it wasn't completely new to me. I think I will use this technique more often so that I'm not always using barre shapes. Another advantage to this technique is that you don't play the A string which makes the chord sound less bulky and subsequently a bit nicer. The rest of the song involved a lot of hammer ons while holding other notes which was knew to me; I think I should practise this more and it seems to be a recurring technique in Hendrix songs and I'd like to be able to play more of his stuff. As part of my home practise this week I am looking at From Eden by Hozier because it is the next song
Read more

Term 2 - Lesson 11

Image
Our final lesson of the term was about putting modes in to context. We started off by learning the chords to 'Good Times' by Chic which were Em, E7, A7 and A6 and they looked like this.                                               I got in to the rhythm well -  keeping that funk strumming pattern is easy for me so I enjoyed it. At first I struggled with the chord changes but I got used to them fairly quickly. The next task was to find a scale that would work over the top of it. We figured out that the key of this song is D because it uses an A7. Because the first chord is an E minor we were able to use an E Dorian scale, starting on the 12th fret of the bottom string and we had a go soloing in that. Similarly we could use a Mixolydian D scale starting on the fifth fret of the bottom string. At first I just ran up and down the scales while somebody played the chords to get familiar with the notes and then as I became more confident I was able to add hammer ons and slide
Read more

Term 3 - Lesson 1

Today we rehashed over the blues stuff we did because next week all the musicians are going to play blues together. We practiced playing the shuffle chords and soloing over the top. We reminded ourselves of what the blues scale is and how to switch between major and minor pentatonic scales. One thing I need to remember is that the blues note is always the flat 5th. I also need to keep practicing my major pentatonic scales because I was unsure of the shape in G and even more unfamiliar with how to switch between the two types. We touched on our goals for the end of the year. One of my goals is to be able to play The Longest Wave up to speed which I am still practicing. I might re-film me playing it nearer the end of the term so that I can see how I've improved. Another goal was improving my listening skills and being to work things out by ear more and I did that last weekend with a new song that we are learning for the next gig. It is called Brazil by Declan McKenna. I figured out
Read more